1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to machines of the type that splice two sheets of material together by applying a strip of adhesive tape to abutting edges of the material. More specifically, the present invention provides an apparatus and method for interconnecting a trailing transverse edge of a sheet of a first stack of fan-folded paper with a leading edge of a succeeding stack of fan-folded paper. By interconnecting sheets of individual stacks to each other, a stack is formed that is large enough to be supplied to a high speed printer, such as, a computer printer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Apparatus and machines of the general type provided by the present invention are old. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 2,827,104 describes a forms splicing machine having a table on which edges of two sheets are held in edge-to-edge abutting relation. A carriage containing a supply of adhesive tape moves across the table parallel with the abutting edges to apply tape in overlapping relation to abutting edge portions of the sheets. A knife is mounted on the carriage for cutting the tape.
Another type of previously known machine is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,776,795. This patent describes an apparatus for joining ends of multi-layer printing forms to each other so as to provide a continuous supply of printing media to high speed printing machines. The end of one strip of multi-layer forms is positioned with the front edge of the next strip in aligned abutting relation. Then, a strip of adhesive material is applied across an outer sheet or layer of each strip. Subsequently, one or both forms are partially perforated leaving a partially folded overtab which holds the under layers in aligned relation to the outer sheet.
A problem with both of the aforementioned machines is that it is extremely difficult to subsequently separate the tape-joined sheets from each other.
Another problem with previously known machines is that no provision is made for verifying that the sheets of the individual joined stacks are, in fact, joined to each other.